BAGHDAD, Iraq: US Marines are making an investigation in the killings of 30 people whose bodies were found Tuesday in an Iraqi village near the Syrian border, all shot in the head or chest, a day after 15 headless corpses were discovered near Latifiyah.

The 30 bodies were found Tuesday evening by Iraqi police in Ar-Rumana village on the lush bank of the Euphrates River near the restive Iraqi-Syrian border town of Al-Qaim.

According to Al-Qaim hospital director Dr. Hamdi al-Aloussi, all of the victims were shot in the forehead. A woman's body was among the dead. Police had not identified the bodies.

“We have now 30 bodies and the search is ongoing to find the others,” said General Jassim Dulaimi from the police force in Ramadi, the region's capital.
 
Last summer, 13 bodies were found in Al-Qaim.
 
The bodies were discovered by a shepherd, a hospital official said. The circumstances surrounding the bodies found near Al-Qaim remained a mystery. One body was identified as that of Riyadh Aziz As-Sanad, a civilian who lives near Qaim and had been shot in the head, the hospital official said. All of the victims' bodies were returned to their families for burial, he added.
 
The victims had been blindfolded, handcuffed behind their backs and shot in the back and head.

Headless corpses found after Karbala pilgrims disappearance reports BAGHDAD, Iraq: The Iraqi army said Tuesday it found 15 beheaded corpses on an old military base near Latifiyah, south of Baghdad.